Tigers Look to Sweep Series vs. Arkansas

Mark Murphy

02/09/2009

The Tigers look for their fourth Southeastern Conference victory as Jeff Lebo's club takes on visiting Arkansas.

Auburn, Ala.--The Auburn men's basketball team has been up and down like a rollercoaster in recent weeks. On Wednesday night Auburn coach Jeff Lebo will be looking to avoid a sinking feeling as his Tigers look to sweep the season series vs. Arkansas.

Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. in Auburn and there is no television coverage scheduled as the 14-9 Tigers, who are 3-5 in the SEC, take on 13-8 Arkansas, a team that surprisingly has just one SEC victory in eight tries this season after racking up some impressive wins earlier this season.

Lebo's Tigers had one of their up games on Jan. 24th at Fayetteville with a 73-51 road victory vs. the Razorbacks. A win on Wednesday at Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum would give the Tigers their first sweep of the Razorbacks since 2003.

Auburn's win over Tennessee came after a major downer for Lebo's club, a 78-59 road loss at Ole Miss in the worst performance of the season for the Tigers, who had also played poorly in their two previous games, a home loss to Vanderbilt and an unimpressive win over Texas-Pan American.

Michael Washington, a 6-9, 239 junior forward, leads the Razorbacks with averages of 17 points and 9.8 rebounds per game. He is the SEC's leading rebounder. Stefan Welsh, a 6-3 junior guard, is averaging 14.8 points, 6.5 assists and 5.2 rebounds for Coach John Pelphrey's team.

DeWayne Reed leads Auburn in scoring with 13.3 points per game, but Rasheem Barrett has been the big scorer in recent games. He contributed 27 points vs. Tennessee and his key rebound set up the winning basket by Barber, who is second on the team in scoring with 13.0 points per game and first in rebounding with 9.1 per contest.

Rasheem Barrett shoots vs. Kentucky>

Barrett, back to 100 percent physically after being slowed in the pre-conference schedule with injuries, has improved his scoring average to 9.3 points per game.

In the first Tigers vs. Razorbacks matchup, Barber led the Tigers with 15 points and 18 rebounds, which matched his career-high. Reed contributed 16 points, six rebounds and six assists while Tay Waller scored 14 points as he hit four treys.

Welsh led the Razorbacks with 14 points and point guard Courtney Fortson added 12 points and four assists, but had six turnovers.

Arkansas leads the series 23-14, but Auburn has a 10-7 edge in games played at Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum.